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A Dracolich is what you get when a dragon decides to perform the unspeakable rites of lichdom. Due to the vagaries of alphabetical ordering, we get to look at them before we dive into the huge “Dragon” entry. They’re present on both the Monster Manual and the Vault, though they’re mixed in with the living dragons in the later.

The Lore

I simply must start this section by making a direct quote from the MM: “Dracoliches are selfish, greedy, and interested only in amassing more power and treasure.” So, pretty much like standard dragons? Both books have a lot more about them, I just thought that sentence in particular was funny.

Dragons are long-lived but not immortal, so a dragon might choose to become a lich to escape death much like a human wizard would. It’s also possible for a dragon to be made into a dracolich against its will, usually by some sinister cults looking to bag themselves a powerful servant.

Needless to say, dracoliches are pretty evil. The voluntary version of the ritual requires the same sort of livelie awfulnesse that only true villains would be willing to perform - if you weren’t officially Evil before performing it, you certainly are afterwards. The involuntary version leaves the dragon under the control of the (also inevitably evil) group who performed it.

I suppose a dracolich who was turned involuntarily and manages to break free of its controllers could be unaligned or even good depending on how it was in life. Of course, if it was your typical evil chromatic then freedom won’t do much to improve its disposition.

Dracoliches aren’t reliant on phylacteries at all. The involuntary ritual produces one as the key to controlling the dracolich, so you actually have a situation where the lich wants to destroy its own phylactery here. In either case, destroying the dracolich’s body slays it for good, with the control phylactery shattering if it still exists when the monster dies.

The Monster Vault adds that lichdom makes dragons more scheming and manipulative than they were in life. They’ll develop intricate plans and conspiracies to increase their own power, and establish large networks of minions and servants to accomplish these goals. If your dragons already do that, then I guess dracolichs are even more meddlesome. Or maybe they go after living dragons with much less regard for diplomacy than usual, since it’s likely they see themselves as superior to their living brethren.

Dungeons and Dragons has never been a game to provide just one stat block for a given type of dragon, and here this extends to the dracolich as well. The Monster Manual has no less than three variants, and the Monster Vault has two more. I’ll cover each book in its own section.

The Numbers (Monster Manual)

The “basic” MM Dracolich is a Huge Natural Magical Beast (dragon, undead). This is a perfect example of how the undead keyword is different from the shadow origin! This dracolich is a Level 18 Solo Controller with 885 HP, equivalent to an elder dragon. It has darkvision and trained Perception. It’s immune to disease, fear, and poison, has 30 necrotic resistance and 10 radiant vulnerability. It runs at Speed 8 and flies at Speed 10 (but clumsily). Like all solo monsters, it has +5 to all saves and 2 Action Points. Being a high-level MM monster, its attacks suffer pretty heavily from the damage bug, so you’d need to fix that before using it.

Its basic attack is a Reach 3 bite that does physical damage, and extra necrotic damage to stunned targets. It can also attack with a Recharge 5-6 breath weapon, a Close Blast 9 that targets Reflex. A hit does necrotic damage and stuns for a turn. A miss still does half damage but doesn’t stun. And either way the targets lose any necrotic resistance they had (save ends).

You know I actually don’t mind this breath having low damage so much. That’s a huge area and some pretty heavy riders. You might as well say every PC is affected every time unless one of them is a ranger who likes to snipe from off the map or something. Measuring the exact area of effect of the dracolich’s necrotic breath becomes more important if it has allies. This isn’t a party-friendly attack and even undead will be negatively affected by it.

This cloud of death isn’t the only source of stuns for the dracolich. It also has Frightening Presence, that draconic staple. This is an encounter power that affects a Close Burst 10 (i.e, every PC) and targets Will. Targets hit by the attack are stunned for a turn, and take a -2 penalty to attacks until the end of the encounter.

If that isn’t enough, it still has a couple of triggered actions. As an interrupt when someone makes a melee attack against it, it can deploy a Mesmerizing Glare. This attack against Will stuns for a turn on a hit, and inflicts a -2 penalty to attacks for a turn on a miss. Since it’s an interrupt, either effect can preempt the attack that triggered it. Oh, and it’s a Close Blast 3, so it can end up stunning more people than just the attacker. And then we have the other draconic staple, Bloodied Breath, which allows the dracolich to recharge and use its breath immediately upon being bloodied.

The written tactics for it are to use the breath first, then enter melee and spend an action point to use Frightful Presence. The last action point should be saved for a tactical retreat - this guy is a mastermind, not a “fight to the death” type.

Following this we have the Blackfire Dracolich, a bigger and badder version. It’s Gargantuan (the largest size category in 4e), and a Level 23 Solo Controller with 1095 HP. It has all of the basic model’s traits with numbers increased due to level. Its necrotic resistance is 35, but its radiant weakness is still at 10. The reach of its melee attacks is 4.

The Blackfire Dracolich has one extra attack on top of all the things from the basic model: the titular Blackfire, a secondary breath weapon that affects a Close Blast 5, hits automatically, does necrotic and ongoing fire damage, and recharges on a 4-6.

To finish it off we have the Runescribed Dracolich, a yet more powerful version. This one is a Level 29 Solo Controller with 1335 HP. It has everything the Blackfire Dracolich has, and a few things more. Its necrotic resistance is 40, which I think is the highest resistance I’ve seen anywhere so far (not counting complete immunities). It’s “final boss” material for a campaign that reaches the mid-epics, and could be an exarch or lieutenant for an undeath-focused final boss like Orcus.

This top-end variation has all of the Blackfire Dracolich’s attacks, plus Runescribed Retaliation. This is an interrupt that triggers when the dracolich is targeted by a ranged attack. It allows the monster to make a very accurate attack against the attacker’s Will, and on a hit the monster can redirect the incoming attack to any other target within 5 squares of it. The attacker still has to roll to hit the new target, but they can’t miss on purpose.

It appears that MM dracoliches in general are less focused on performing multiple actions and more focused on denying the PC’s actions, with this liberal use of at-will stunning.

The sample encounter here is Level 20: a basic dracolich and a party of high-powered yuan-ti. You can stop wondering about which sort of cult would want their own dracolich lackey.

The Numbers (Monster Vault)

The Monster Vault starts us off at a more humble place with the Deathbringer Dracolich. It’s Large, and a Level 12 Solo Controller with 492 HP, equivalent to an adult dragon. Like the MM variants, it has trained Perception and Darkvision. It’s immune to disease and poison, but not fear. It’s necrotic resistance is 10, as is its radiant vulnerability. It runs at speed 6 and flies clumsily at speed 8.

Like a living dragon, this dracolich has Action Recovery, which automatically ends any dazing, stunning or dominating effects on the monster when it ends its turn. It also can use its Mesmerizing Gaze (below) automatically on an initiative of 10+its initiative result for the fight.

Its basic attack is a Reach 2 bite that does physical damage and ongoing necrotic damage. It can instead make two Reach 2 Claw attacks, which slide the target 2 squares even if they don’t hit. Its breath weapon is a Close Blast 5 that targets Reflex, does necrotic damage and weakens (save ends). On a miss it still does half damage and weakens for a turn.

The afore-mentioned Mesmerizing Gaze is a minor action Ranged 10 attack, targetting Will and dominating (save ends) on a hit. On a miss it does 15 psychic damage if the target willingly moves closer to the dracolich before the end of the target’s next turn. Either way it slides the target 2 squares. Make sure to keep these effects in mind, because this attack is going to happen a lot.

Then we have the Dracolich Doomlord, a Huge Level 22 Solo Controller with 840 HP whose power level is on par with the living elder dragons from this book. Its necrotic resistance increases to 15, and is speed to “8, fly 10”. Everything else is comparable to the basic model aside from level-based number increases.

The doomlord gains a new passive trait: the Aura of Doom has a radius of 3 and prevents any enemies inside from regaining HP or gaining temporary HP. Yikes! Its breath weapon regains the ability to remove necrotic resistance (save ends) as an effect, but its mesmerizing gaze loses the “take damage if you come closer” curse on a miss. Here’s someone who will try to keep the whole party within the aura of doom at all times, and likely go for the healers first. It has enough HP to eat a few opportunity attacks from defenders in order to do that.

Final Impressions

Dracoliches feel somehow scarier than the Tarrasque, even though they’re lower level. Fighting the MM variants in particular seems like it would be pure agony for the players, with the stuns flowing freely. I can see why they switched to a more multi-action solo stat block for the MV. I can also see why the MV lumped them in with the other dragons. As we’re about to see, they’re really very similar, and fill the Controller niche that was missing from lineup of living chromatics.